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Branding

Branding is something you’re likely familiar with. Most people think of logos and color schemes when it comes to branding, but it’s much more than that. Branding is really what people think of when they see your logo or hear your name. Who Owns Your Brand? The truth is, you don’t own your brand – your brand lives in the minds of everyone else. I’ll give you an example. If I said the name Trump to you five years ago, you probably would have thought “real estate, hair, The Apprentice, New York.” But if I say the word Trump to you today, your response willRead More →

Oh, Pepsi. What did you do? Why did you do it? This is the type of marketing that ruins marketing for the rest of us. I hate this kind of marketing – the hijacking of a movement for the sake of making a few bucks. This type of marketing puts profits over people, and this ad in particular made that fact even worse by using today’s hot-button topics to sell a soft drink – a soft drink – in an ad that didn’t even address anything, just took several serious matters and threw so much pixie dust on them they were barely recognizable. Friends, this blog post addresses politicalRead More →

Color choice is an important part of your website and marketing materials. I believe that design and usability go hand-in-hand. It is so frustrating to me when when something is so poorly designed that’s it’s hard to use. It’s also very frustrating to see something that’s designed to be pretty but not very functional. This is true when it comes to marketing, especially with websites. There are many aspects to design, but I want to talk to you about color today, because color choice can make or break a website or marketing piece for one reason: contrast. Contrast Isn’t Sexy I realize that talking aboutRead More →

Visiting a local mall recently, I ran across a new attraction – Escape Room Pittsburgh Mills. You’ve probably heard of escape rooms – they’re the new Big Thing. The premise is that you need to solve clues to “escape” within a certain amount of time. Since I haven’t tried this before, I grabbed one of the flyers they had. Marketing doesn’t need to be a mystery, and oftentimes there are just a few things that can be done to bring your materials together. The best way to show this is to take real-world examples and show you what they did right and what can beRead More →

Tonight I am starting a new course called Create A Website for a local adult education organization. I love sharing my knowledge with the community, but I’ll tell you a secret – I usually learn as much, if not more, as they do! Creating and teaching classes like these so beneficial for me. I love having an online course available so that anyone can learn from me at any time, but there’s something about teaching a roomful of people face-to-face that can’t be beat! The instant feedback lets me know if I’m explaining things in the best way. As technology changes and people become more comfortable,Read More →

Your target audience is the group of people who are your customers and clients – or who you want to be your customers and clients. When you’re talking about your target audience, most people are familiar with demographics. Demographics Demographics are the stats about your target audience, such as gender, age, race, location, education, marital status, and income. These are traits that many people share, but otherwise, those people could be very different. While demographics are important, there’s another set of data that helps determine your target audience. Psychographics Psychographics are much more specific to a person. They include a person’s set of values andRead More →

If you’ve never heard of guerrilla marketing, I’m not surprised. It’s one of those types of marketing that most businesses don’t even think about, but it can be very effective. Guerrilla Marketing Is… Guerrilla Marketing is sort of experimental marketing – it’s a way to share your message in a memorable, creative, low-cost way that has a big effect. Now, that might sound like “normal” marketing, but there’s a difference. Guerrilla marketing is usually one-off. It occurs for a limited time and can be found in usual places. For example… In the Bathroom A bar bathroom is not the place where you would expect to findRead More →

We all know the typical stock photos – a group of business people sitting at a table and smiling at a document. Yup, totally realistic. But you need images to use in your marketing. Check out this list of 11 websites where you can get great photos for free, even for commercial use. But first… NEVER use images without permission. You cannot Google an image and use it on your website without getting permission from the owner. You can be SUED for doing this. I have seen this happen. It’s usually because people don’t understand the laws around using images, but that’s not an excuse. UsingRead More →

I have bad news for you. You don’t own your brand. I know you’ve spent a lot of time creating a logo and crafting your brand’s voice. You may have spent a lot of money doing this as well. Yet, you still don’t own it. You know who does? We all do. Your brand lives in the minds of everyone else. Your brand is what other people think about you. And as much as we marketers like to think we can control what other people think, we can only influence it. Think about the last time you went to a store and had a bad experience.Read More →

Authenticity. It’s been the buzzword in social media marketing as of late, and it’s something that I take very seriously. However, you can’t make yourself “more authentic.” If you do a Google search on how to be authentic on social media, you won’t run out of articles to read. However, you can’t strategize how to be more authentic. You just are. I started thinking about authenticity this week when I was listening to the UnPodcast (which is a must-listen). The hosts, Scott Stratten and Allison Kramer, were talking about how radio shows’ Facebook Pages are The Worst and I realized that I am really lucky toRead More →